Gene Simmons Backs Away from Depression Comments After Public Pressure

Under fire from a score of people, including Motley Crue/Sixx AM rocker Nikki Sixx, concerning his recent comments on depression, Gene Simmons has taken a step back to clarify his controversial stance.

In a Facebook post today (Aug. 15), Simmons noted that he believes depression is “very serious” and that anything negative about it that he said was “never [his] intention.”

“I deeply support and am empathetic to anyone suffering from any disease, especially depression,” the KISS singer/bassist wrote. “I have never sugarcoated my feelings regarding drug use and alcoholics. “Somewhere along the line, my intentions in speaking very directly and perhaps politically-incorrectly about drug use and alcoholics have been misconstrued as vile commentary on depression.”

He added that his “heart goes out to anyone suffering from depression.”

Simmons made headlines earlier this month when he noted in an interview with Songfacts that he had little sympathy for drug addicts or people with depression, mostly alluding to some of his former bandmates.

“I don’t get along with anybody who’s a drug addict and has a dark cloud over their head and sees themselves as a victim,” Simmons said. “Drug addicts and alcoholics are always: ‘The world is a harsh place.’ My mother was in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany. I don’t want to hear f–k all about ‘the world as a harsh place.’ She gets up every day, smells the roses and loves life.

“And for a putz, 20-year-old kid to say, ‘I’m depressed, I live in Seattle.’ F–k you, then kill yourself.”